Kaji's (and Mari's) English

ehh123 · Embryo Joined: 22 Apr 2010 Age: 22 Gender: Male

Do you think Kaji's attempt at speaking English was intentionally bad? Everyone else was doing a pretty good job, especially Mari's actress even if she did have a slight accent. The people that Kaji was talking to seemed to be confused at what he was saying. Then again, I may be expecting too much from Koichi Yamadera, who is like the Frank Welker or Mel Blanc of Japan. Voice is one thing, language is another.

_________________
"Does the bus run through here?"

chee · First Ancestor Joined: 16 Jul 2007 Location: New Jersey

No, I'm pretty sure that Yamadera's English was just shitty.

_________________
"Fans are clingy, complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make."
-Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw

subAtomic · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:23 pm Post subject:

I noticed in all fansubs that "perfmafrost excavation" has been incorrectly translated as "permafrost extraction". He's saying "excavation".

**Sachi** · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject:

The other actors were meant to fill English-speaking roles, while Kaji is filling a primarily Japanese-speaking role. I wouldn't hire somebody whose only job is to speak English for two or three lines if they couldn't do it moderately. However, Kaji is Kaji, and Kaji primarily speaks Japanese.

subAtomic wrote:

I noticed in all fansubs that "perfmafrost excavation" has been incorrectly translated as "permafrost extraction". He's saying "excavation".

A lot of the words were incorrectly subbed, but the meaning of the phrase didn't really change. Intentional or not, it's no big deal.

_________________
-Sachi
"Sachi: your anal is awesome. AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT BABY." - SSD
"The womb is a nice, empty cavity to stick an... EMBRYO." - AuraTwilight, kicking ass and making sense doing it.
Avatar: Sahaquiel
Currently Watching: High School of the Dead
Song of the Week: Magnum Opus -- Kansas
Geeks With Taste: Mike Portnoy to Leave Dream Theater

MugwumpHasNoLiver · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:26 pm Post subject:

The idea that the guys listening to Kaji have no idea what he's saying fills my heart with joy. If I could be pretentious for a moment, which I will, I would postulate that it's a metafictional element meant to mirror the audience's own confusion in regards to Kaji's terrible English.

"El-en. Ker pow!"

_________________
Women that I would go straight for:
1. Lady Gaga
2. Ayn Rand
3. Creedence Leonore Gielgud
4. Myself, wearing a dress
5. You ;) *

*If Male; You, wearing a dress

I hate the abortion debate. I am not pro-life or pro-choice. For one thing, how the fuck can you have two pros to a debate? Hell, I'm anti-life and anti-choice. All babies should be aborted and you have no choice in the matter. -Bomby
Abortion, the other white meat. Look it up. -Planet

Killer Bee · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:40 pm Post subject: Kaji: King of Komedy

I thought that was the most hilarious part of the movie. Everyone at Bethany Base just looks at him like he's nuts. I can imagine them all whispering to each other...

Quote:

"What the hell's he saying?"
"Is he Japanese or something? He doesn't look Japanese."
"Maybe he's retarded."
"I like his stubble."

And then when Kaji completely kills the "wild in bed" joke; Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke just look at him like... well, like he's a stranger who just walked up to them and commented on Misato's sex habits. And then Kaji turns and walks away, probably thinking about how cool he must've sounded. And the three kids are like, "What the hell just happened?"

_________________
"What is MORE disturbing is seeing a brief shot of Shinji holding his semen in his hands. Dear god, that shit is nasty! I betcha it smells like french fries." ~Meghan
"The beserker mode always struck me as fundamentally existential: breaking the chains of oppression only to see that the freedom that awaits you is utter madness." ~ran1

oOoOoOo · Evangelion Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Location: Canada

The best part is how elaborate the English lines are. He's not all "OKAY SEE YOU LATER GUYS". I always have to pause at that point and read everything, because my brain is getting all confused by things that sound like English.

Surely they could have found some random gaijin to make a weird phonetic chart or something for Kaji's actor to read off. But for the average Japanese person, maybe that sounds suitably foreign to be believable.

Kira Bee-kun, I like the way you're thinking. That's totally Kaji, haha.

_________________
~ O-chan is soooo 2D right now.

GasmaskAvenger · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:50 pm Post subject:

one of the goofier scenes in it, but its effective for what it is

_________________
Back in the day, she was a member of the Shadaloo Dolls. Today? nope.

My AU Evangelion Fanfic
The FanFiction Firing Squad's excellent riffing of my EVA fic
My Street Fighter fanfic
Mah Youtube channel

XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger
PSN: GasmaskAvenger

evaunit13 · Lilith Joined: 07 Jul 2009

always reminds me of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUi6UEQh00&playnext_from=TL&videos=5MtS6UH4G1A

_________________
i want rebuild

SaltyJoe · Donor Joined: 23 Apr 2009 Age: 22 Gender: Male

This is what first came to my mind when i first heard him speaking.

Aslo, when i first watched the camrip, i thought he mentioned martini in there somewhere. Must be the Bond-like image.

_________________
_________________

Eva 02 · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:15 am Post subject: Re: Kaji's English

ehh123 wrote:

Mari's actress even if she did have a slight accent.

You can hear when she goes from speaking to Shinji to answering the phone that its a different actress, I just noticed that not 30 minutes ago. Her accent also appears to be Ukraine or Czec or Even Lebanese. Its pretty clear english for a foreigner, almost seems like they assimilated into english language and is now forcing herself to put accent.

Sachi wrote:

However, Kaji is Kaji, and Kaji primarily speaks Japanese.

I think the point was to show Kaji's multifaceted-ness. Granted he worked primarily in Germany, its safe to assume he spoke german as well. I seem to remember reading somewhere he can speak french and something else but then again,, if its not mentioned in the anime you dont always know where it comes from.

_________________
I'm in love with Mary Jane and Codeine -I don't love these hoes
I can remember my first cup, I was so in love
So when I wake up in the morning, Before I brush my teeth I'm pouring up
Lil' momma you a dime piece, but I'll fuck you up if you touch my cup
Cause it ain't cheap like it used to be
And this one cost 350 bucks
I Can't Leave Drank Alone

**ZapX** · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:20 am Post subject: Re: Kaji's English

Eva 02 wrote:

You can hear when she goes from speaking to Shinji to answering the phone that its a different actress

No it isn't. That's all Maaya. I'd know that angelic voice in any language. Besides, she sings in english all the time.

_________________
"Stop watching anime. it makes you think all girls are incredibly hot and shy, and there are 10 that all want your boner which just isn't true." -Brik-aniki

"Oh, no. I've been sneaking around the neighborhood. Delivering sedatives to random mothers, and milking their teats."-Reichu

"I'm lying in bed naked. Maybe I should go get my Tron DVD and jerk off." -Kaiser O-Ornette-dono-sama

"Rp fagging isn't as dorky as...yeah, I got nothing. There's nothing worse." -Lucretius ◕‿‿◕

Eva 02 · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:38 am Post subject:

Idk, listen to the difference right now. Its either a really bad cut or she's trying to imitate a different accent. The only way you can tell its japanese is the tongue sounds.

_________________
I'm in love with Mary Jane and Codeine -I don't love these hoes
I can remember my first cup, I was so in love
So when I wake up in the morning, Before I brush my teeth I'm pouring up
Lil' momma you a dime piece, but I'll fuck you up if you touch my cup
Cause it ain't cheap like it used to be
And this one cost 350 bucks
I Can't Leave Drank Alone

AuraTwilight · First Ancestor Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Location: Za Warudo

It's the same voice actor as confirmed on the DVD. Maaya's just that talented.

Besides, it's nowhere near as much a crazy difference as Daisuke Namikawa or anyone like that.

_________________
J_Faulkner, be warned that some of your statements could be construed as ad hominem attacks. -- Priceless, eternal irony

Anno has perfected the side boob --Gendo'sPapa

oOoOoOo · Evangelion Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Location: Canada

It is because of Zappy-kun that I now have three albums by Mari's incredibly talented voice actor. She can do anything. The best part about her is that she seems like a regular girl, not some model-perfect idol descended from the celestial realm. She's also got the same crazy double-jointed arms I do. This is all very relevant to Kaji.

^^;

English is really like the modern Latin. I bet most people who could "speak Latin" back in the day were really shitty at it. English is already slowly changing into something many people in the Anglosphere (Britain and former colonies) can't really recognize. It isn't really "our" language anymore. I've seen Kaji-style lines in a few foreign films now. You go to some places and people speak crazy hybrids of English and the local language.

_________________
~ O-chan is soooo 2D right now.

Oz · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:25 am Post subject:

oOoOoOo wrote:

You go to some places and people speak crazy hybrids of English and the local language.

Have you been eavesdropping on Xard and me?

_________________
"Myself, Xard, Oz, and Planet News should all be little/adolescent girls trying to start a punk/fusion jazz power quartet with myself on keyboard, Xard on Drums, Oz on bass, and Planet on GUITAH. Hilarity and love triangles ensue on the backdrop of the Macross Universe. We all also happen to be Macross Pilot Child Soldiers who are destined to have grand space fights with the reincarnated souls of the greatest dead musicians ever. Our music club moderator is Jimbo, who has a secret desire to turn us into a heavy metal band. Our battle commander is Major Slavoj Zizek of the 14th United Slovenian Fighter Wing who sits back at his comm and barks orders and random philosophical musings as we engage in meta space battles in which the future of the entire space station hangs in the balance." - ran

**Reichu** · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:28 am Post subject:

subAtomic wrote:

I noticed in all fansubs that "perfmafrost excavation" has been incorrectly translated as "permafrost extraction". He's saying "excavation".

Just to nitpick, his incoherent English isn't being translated into another language; it's being transcribed into text so people can actually know WTF he's saying. The lines have been difficult enough (tons of revisions) that it's no surprise something slipped through the cracks. Good to know.

oOoOoOo wrote:

You go to some places and people speak crazy hybrids of English and the local language.

I heard plenty of that just lounging around at the community college campus here in New Jersey. People just flipflopping between Spanish or Korean or Chinese (not sure which Chinese) and bits of English.

Makes me kind of jealous. I want to spontaneously dump bits of non-English into my discourse all the time, but people either wouldn't understand me, or they'd tell me to stop being a weeaboo.

_________________
-- Rachel K. Clark (a.k.a. "Reichu")
Current Status: Away From Forum (See here.)
Avatar: Dr. Rusty Venture, Venture Bros.
Every time I get over you you say something to make me love you again. -- ZapalacX

BrikHaus · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:36 am Post subject:

I couldn't believe how fucking bad Kaji's english was. I'm a native English speaker, I can get by all right in Japanese, but I literally thought he was speaking gibberish when he first started talking. I had to rewind the movie to understand that his voice actor was attempting English. If he was that goddamn bad, why the fuck didn't they just have him speak all the lines in Japanese? Why did they bother to use English at all? I wish they would have fixed this for the DVD release.

I hope for the English dub, they have Kaji's "english lines" spoken in really broken, horrible Japanese. That would be sweet.

_________________
My old blog died, here's a crappy new one.
-"That purace has more badassu maddafaakas zan supermax spaceland."
-On EMF, as a thread becomes longer, the likelihood that fem-Kaworu will be mentioned increases exponentially.

ran1 · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:39 am Post subject:

Oz wrote:

Have you been eavesdropping on Xard and me?

OH GOD DAT FINN-MONGOL-TURK-ENGLISH-HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE.

Onkohan Kaji puhuu Englanti

amidoinitrite?

I can appreciate Anno trying to make Kaji more "authentic" as a spy, but it indeed fails miserably.

_________________
INTERNET MODERATION AT ITS FINEST
ran1: Actually existentially and psychologically the symbolical Zizekian philosophy, exuberating Sartre and Kierkegaard in metaphysical Lacanian semantics and Nietzschian utilitarianistic theories. ~Fazmotron
Oh fuck you, EGF. Fuck you. The first thing I read after waking up is a collective dump on Battle Royale. ~Oz
It's official, Ran killed the Rebuild Subforum. Now that someone with Indie Cred hates it, the whole charade is over. ~Luc, :3

Oz · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:51 am Post subject:

ran1 wrote:

amidoinitrite?

You silly American. Pfft.

First of all, remove "onkohan" (weird inflection, by the way) because Finnish questions aren't structured like they are in English. Directly modify the verb instead and place it first. You also forgot to inflect the object so it doesn't stand out as the object (englanti -> englantia). And in Finnish we don't use capital letters for languages. So the sentence should be like this:

Puhuuko Kaji englantia?

EDIT: For the English dub, they should force Kaji's voice actor to speak Finnish. Epic lulz would be guaranteed.

_________________
"Myself, Xard, Oz, and Planet News should all be little/adolescent girls trying to start a punk/fusion jazz power quartet with myself on keyboard, Xard on Drums, Oz on bass, and Planet on GUITAH. Hilarity and love triangles ensue on the backdrop of the Macross Universe. We all also happen to be Macross Pilot Child Soldiers who are destined to have grand space fights with the reincarnated souls of the greatest dead musicians ever. Our music club moderator is Jimbo, who has a secret desire to turn us into a heavy metal band. Our battle commander is Major Slavoj Zizek of the 14th United Slovenian Fighter Wing who sits back at his comm and barks orders and random philosophical musings as we engage in meta space battles in which the future of the entire space station hangs in the balance." - ran